Golf Course Closed - Will Open on Friday

 Wednesday morning we arrived at the golf course to find a nice frost. 

Thursday, we arrived to a blanket of wet snow.  We had about two inches of snow on the ground. 

Much of our winter projects thus far have been completed inside the maintenance facility.  Looks like our staff is just happy to be outside!

Strange Weather

We could all agree that the weather patterns we are experiencing this winter of 2013 are a bit out of the ordinary.  We have seen temperature 24 hour temperature fluctuations of as much as  45 degrees and now we have seen a storm dump nearly 4 inches of warm rainfall and rip 50mph winds through our golf course in the middle of winter.  I even heard some rumbles of thunder at my house last night.  It is shocking to think that with colder temperatures, this storm could have produced over 3 1/2 fet of snow in our area! 

One casualty caused by the combination of high winds and soft ground was this 40 foot red oak tree along the right side of #15.

Our staff was able to make fairly quick work of this fallen tree. 

When you are trying to dry soil in a pond, even small rain events can be frustrating.   It may take more than eight hours to pump the pond down this time. 

 We are able to capture this rainfall and transfer it into our main irrigation pond on #9.   This will be enough to fill this pond completely and will be a welcome sight in the spring when we are looking to start irrigating the golf course.

Course Open - All 18 Holes!

The golf course is open again.  We opened this morning with a few holes remaining closed.   With the temps in the 50's, all of the snow/slush has melted off and we have now opened all 18 holes.

Golf Course Closed Again

Greystone is closed again with about 2" of fresh, powdery snow. 

We Are Open - For Now...

Yesterday's high temperature of 27 degrees was just enough to melt the dusting of snow that covered the golf course.  We are open for play today.   We will see what today and tonight have in store for us with 1-2 inches of snowfall in the forecast.



View of #10 green from just outside of our maintenance facility.





Closed with Snow Cover

Course closed today with a light dusting of snow covering all of the putting surfaces and cart paths.

The freezing temperatures we are experiencing are some of the coldest that I can remember in several years.  And even though we don't always like it, the cold weather benefits the golf course.  One of the main benefits of cold weather is the suppression of insect activity and fungal pathogen activity. Mild winters similar to what we have experienced over the last two winters, have allowed these pest populations to grow.  

 At #6 tee, you can see evidence that it has not been cold for long. 

Frost Delays - Explained

"Frost is essentially frozen dew.  Ice crystals visible on the outside of the plant can also form on the inside of grass blades.  The grass plant, normally resilient to footsteps or cart traffic, becomes brittle and fragile when ice crystals form.   Under the pressure of traffic, ice crystals puncture living plant tissues and rupture plant cells.  Damage will not appear right away, but it will show up in footsteps and tire tracks the following days as the plant is unable to repair itself and begins to die.  Frost damage can occur on any turfgrass, mowed at any height, but is amplified when the plant is mowed low, as on a putting green.

Keep in mind, a foursome typically takes several hundred footsteps on each green, so even allowing just a few groups to play when frost is present can be very damaging to the greens, and the rest of the golf course for that matter.  For this reason, golf facilities are wise to delay starting times in the morning until frost has completely melted."

Ty McClellan, USGA Green Section

 #18 tee surround

Some pictures of frost damage to turf on #18.  These pictures were taken in 2011 after a golf cart was driven through frost covered turf.  This turf was able to recover in the spring.  This is turf-type tall fescue mowed at a height of 2 1/2 ".

This picture of #17 approach was taken in 2011 as well.   This is creeping bentgrass mowed at 0.5"   This turf was slower to recover and this damage was evident into the spring.